Electronic health record (EHR) adoption is lagging in some substance use and mental health treatment facilities, at a time when such care is needed more than ever, government research shows.
In an April data brief, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) found that 1 in 4 treatment facilities still use paper charts for patient records, in combination with an EHR system.
While more than two-thirds of facilities only use EHRs, including 97% of federal government facilities, the records disparity was starkest at the state level. Only 38% of state government treatment facilities have adopted EHRs, said ONC, while the adoption rate among facilities operated by private for-profit and non-profit organizations was 68%.
The lack of universal EHR use is notable because it comes a time when, the brief said, growing prevalence of behavioral health disorders in recent years “has led to increasing demand for substance use and mental health treatment services.”
Once people enter treatment facilities, “electronic health record (EHR) use is critical to improving clinical care, quality of care, and patient outcomes, as well as facilitating the exchange of health information,” said the brief, which added that EHR adoption is “nearly universal among hospitals and physicians.”
Advances in health information interoperability have even more “highlighted the need for greater adoption of EHRs to support care coordination and facilitate data sharing between health care providers and substance use and mental health treatment facilities,” ONC said.
Yet “EHR adoption and interoperability gaps persist,” it said, in part because the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act largely focused on EHR use among hospitals and health care professionals. That “excluded substance use and mental health treatment facilities,” the brief said.
To help address the gaps, several states have recently developed what ONC called “innovative solutions to support interoperability.” They include the Health Care Management and Coordination System in Washington state, which the brief described as “aimed at improving data sharing across multiple state agencies and care settings.”
At the federal level, the brief noted, agencies are working on initiatives aimed at improving EHR adoption rates and behavioral health data exchange. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for example, along with ONC and HHS’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently announced the selection of nine nationwide pilot programs to test health IT standards.
Federal substance use and mental health treatment facilities, the brief noted, are predominantly operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA recently announced that it is planning to expand its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program to nine additional medical facilities in 2026, bringing the total number of deployment sites this year to 13.
The program, however, has faced a troubled rollout marked by underreported costs, deficiencies in training, and diminished employee morale.